After turning down multiple offers from Washington, California defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi today finally accepted an offer from Husky head coach Steve Sarkisian to take essentially the same job he had in Berkeley up on Montlake.

Lupoi will be re-united with Justin Wilcox, Washington's new defensive coordinator, who coached Lupoi when he was at California, and Lupoi was playing for the Bears.

The obvious reason Lupoi finally accepted is money, and reports were that Washington was prepared to pay in the vicinity of a half million a year, and this not for a coordinator (though we will get something of a coordinator title, being named "Defensive Run Game Coordinator").

Recruiting is as much the reason for this as anything, as Lupoi is largely responsible for the continuing string of highly rated recruiting classes the Bears have landed of late. Wilcox, and Oregon St.'s Keith Heyward, who also left to join the Huskies, have reputations as excellent recruiters as well. As much as Husky fans haven't wanted to admit it, their talent level, especially in the trenches, of late has not been that great, and not what they need to continue taking their resurgence to the next level.

Sarkisian has addressed that, and, with Washington Athletic Director Scott Woodward, they have been willing to spend, and spend big to do so. The Huskies will pay former Defensive Coordinator Nick Holt $650K this coming year to not coach as well as what they are spending on coaches.

Continue reading this post »

It was hard to hand the unimpressive offenses we watched Monday night any portion of the top spots in the season ending top 25, but certainly not the defenses, both of which were good enough this year to get their teams to the BCS National Championship Game despite their respective offenses.

Sorting out the best in the west was literally splitting hairs, and frankly, if we had a 4 team national playoff, or a 4 team playoff involving Oregon, USC, Boise St., and Stanford, I'd take those games every time.

The best thing about the Bowl season, both in the big bowls and the secondary ones some decry as not worth while, are the opportunities to compare and contrast styles and systems to a degree it takes half a decade of regular seasons blighted by FCS school contests and teams unwilling to take on a challenge to do.

Here's my take.

Building The Dam Ballot - Week 16

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama Crimson Tide	2
2	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	--
3	LSU Tigers	-2
4	Oregon Ducks	3
5	Boise St. Broncos	1
6	USC Trojans	-1
7	Stanford Cardinal	-3
8	Arkansas Razorbacks	--
9	South Carolina Gamecocks	10
10	Wisconsin Badgers	-1
11	Houston Cougars	3
12	TCU Horned Frogs	-1
13	Michigan Wolverines	3
14	Baylor Bears	4
15	Michigan St. Spartans	-3
16	West Virginia Mountaineers	9
17	Kansas St. Wildcats	-7
18	Oklahoma Sooners	-3
19	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	1
20	Cincinnati Bearcats	--
21	Northern Illinois Huskies	1
22	Clemson Tigers	-1
23	Virginia Tech Hokies	-6
24	Arkansas St. Red Wolves	--
25	Missouri Tigers	--
Dropouts: Georgia Bulldogs, Nebraska Cornhuskers

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com

Final Score: Oklahoma St. 41 Stanford 38 (1 OT)

Brandon Wheedon, quarterback for the #3 Oklahoma Cowboys and Andrew Luck, quarterback for the #4 Stanford Cardinal, engaged in an epic battle of two of the best gunslingers in college football in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, but in the end, it came down to the teams' kickers. A matchup that heavily favored the Cowboys.

Stanford freshman Jordan Williamson missed 3 of 4 field goal attempts, including one on the first possession of the game, one that would have won the game for the Cardinal on the last play of regulation, and one in overtime. All were makeable, and Williamson had plenty of length on the kicks, but no accuracy. The miss that cost the Cardinal the win at the end of the fourth quarter was only the second time Stanford had failed to score after driving into an opponent's red zone all season.

The third miss opened the door for Quinn Sharp, the Big XII's all-conference punter and placekicker, to deliver the game winner, which was the only time the Cowboys led in the game.

Continue reading this post »

Final Score: Oregon 45 Wisconsin 38

Before the game, Oregon coach Chip Kelly said turnovers would be key to the win in what everyone expected to be the shootout that the Rose Bowl turned out to be. And he was right. It was the reason #5 Oregon didn't lead in the first half, when #10 Wisconsin scored 3:26 before the half on a Darron Thomas fumble.

But turnovers were also what derailed a pair of Badger drives in the second half, and that was all the explosive Duck offense, which turned into a clock eating offense in the 4th quarter, when it mattered, needed, and Oregon, after having back to back BCS bowls the last 2 years, including the Rose Bowl 2 years ago, won their first Rose Bowl since 1917, downing Wisconsin 45-38.

Kiko Alonso's interception late in the third quarter led to Lavasier Tuinei's second touchdown reception seconds into the fourth quarter, putting Oregon ahead for good. And Terrance Mitchell's strip of Jared Abbrederis, which came after a 29 yard completion, which Michael Clay recovered, ended Wisconsin's next to last drive, with over 4 minutes left. There would be only 16 seconds left when the Badgers would get the ball back, and though they still drove deep into Duck territory, time expired as Russell Wilson attempted to spike the ball, and get one last play.

"Momma, what's up?" Da. Thomas asked.

His mom wasn't within earshot in the deafening celebration, so Kelly answered for her, and Oregon fans everywhere.

"It's been 95 years since fans could say ‘Oregon Ducks, Rose Bowl Champs'", Kelly explained.

A squandered time out early in the third quarter, when Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema contested that De'Anthony Thomas was outside the endzone when he kneeled for a touchback. However, replay clearly confirmed what the referee on the goal line had seen, that the ball never came completely out of the end zone. So in addition to turnovers, clock management wound up mattering as well.

Which is not something often said about Oregon games, games, where Kelly's wide open style sacrifices time of possession for points, and usually makes the end of games anti-climatic.

And that was the approach against Wisconsin, where Oregon scored 28 points on 29 plays in the first half, and the Badgers had a 21:20 to 8:40 edge in time of possession, but needed Louis Nzegwu's 33 yard touchdown return of Da. Thomas' fumble to forge a 28-28 tie after the highest scoring first half to a Rose Bowl ever.

Yet when it mattered, in the fourth quarter, Oregon mounted a nearly 7 minute drive for a field goal that took a Wisconsin field goal out of the equation, and held the ball for over 9 minutes. Yes, those Ducks played ball control when they needed to.

Continue reading this post »

It's (the day after) New Years' Day, which means (when the new year starts on a Sunday) its Rose Bowl Day, which remains (in most years) the most important day of the year Pac-12. And (this year), Fiesta Bowl Day too.

The Pac-12 has a representative in both this year, and Oregon St. fans know both real well. As well as the Big 12's representative in the Rose Bowl. The Beavers are the only team to play both Oregon and Wisconsin, not to mention Stanford.

#5 Oregon (11-2, 8-1), led by LaMichael James, above, takes on #10 Wisconsin (11-2, 6-2) in the Rose Bowl, in the "Granddaddy of all Bowl Games", and its a "classic" matchup of Pac-12 speed against Big 10 muscle. Except Oregon is more physical than most of the country realizes, and Wisconsin, led by Monte Ball, below, has more speed than most want to admit.

(Just ask Jordan Poyer; he gave his all against both, and it wasn't enough, as Wisconsin romped over Oregon St. 35-0 in Madison in early September, and Oregon out-raced the Beavers 49-21 in the Civil War in Eugene on Thanksgiving Weekend.)

Continue reading this post »

There was other Pac-12 football news besides Utah's 30-27 overtime win over Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl today, as UCLA lost the Kraft FIght Hunger Bowl 20-14 to Illinois, and Washington decided to lose their defensive coaching staff, 2 days after their 67-56 loss to Baylor in the Valero Alamo Bowl statistically established their 2011 defense as the worst in Husky history.

UCLA took a 7-0 lead over Illinois 5 minutes into the second quarter on Kevin Prince's 16 yard touchdown toss to Taylor Embree, and had a 7-3 halftime lead after Illinois quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase suffered a 15 yard sack after driving to the Bruin 3 yard line that forced the Illini to settle for a field goal. The first half in San Francisco produced 184 net combined yards by both teams.

The Bruin lead held up until just before the end of the third quarter, when Prince served up a pick-6 interception Terry Hawthorne took back 39 yards for a 10-7 Illini lead.

Illinois added a field goal early in the fourth quarter, and scored what would turn out to be the game winning points on a 10 yard pass from Scheelhaase to A.J. Jenkins that Jenkins proceeded to run 50 more yards through the UCLA secondary with. The 20 consecutive points pushed the score to 20-7 with 5:36 left in the game.

Continue reading this post »

Final Score: Utah 30 Georgia Tech 27 (1 OT)

Utah rallied from 2 touchdowns down in the 4th quarter to force overtime, and eventually win their first bowl game as a member of the Pac-12, and the first bowl win this season for the conference, when John White IV ducked behind a lead block by Shawn Asiata, and then bulled his way into the end zone.

White, who set a new single season Utah rushing record on the way to the game tieing touchdown, finished with 115 yards on 26 carries. The second team All-Pac 12 running back, affectionately known as "The Wolfman", set off wolf calls in both El Paso and Salt Lake City * when he fought into the end zone to win the 78th. Hyundai Sun Bowl 30-27 over Georgia Tech from the ACC.

Most Utah fans felt their Utes, playing possibly their last game under the "Drum and Feather" logo, were left for dead when Yellow Jacket linebacker Quayshawn Nealy took his interception off Utah quarterback Jon Hayes back 74 yards for Georgia Tech's second touchdown in 30 seconds, and a 24-10 lead.

But there was still a third of the game left, and Utah didn't give up.

(* Warning about and apologies for the PG-13 reaction, our JazzyUte colleague at BlockU is a tad excitable.)

Continue reading this post »

Final Score: Baylor 67 Washington 56

To be clear, this is NOT a basketball game report. It could be an Arena Football League game scoring summary, and it was played in an indoor arena. But no, the Valero Alamo Bowl was a "regular" football game. Except there was nothing normal about it.

Washington sophomore Keith Price out-gunned an impressive enough performance by Baylor's Heisman Trophy winning Robert Griffin III. But the Bears' Terrance Ganaway was able to out-run the Huskies Chris Polk, and he got a lot more rushing help, something Polk lacked.

The offensive numbers are mind numbing. Price completed 23 of 37 passes, 62%, for 438 yards, and 4 touchdowns, with no interceptions, and ran 5 times for 39 yards and 3 more touchdowns. Polk pounded out 147 yards, and another score, on 30 carries.

In all, the Huskies rolled up 620 yards from scrimmage, and added 240 more on returns, for 860 total yards, 8 touchdowns, and 27 first downs, and converted on 3 fourth downs. And it wasn't nearly enough.

Griffin, though outshadowed at times by Price's spectacular performance, nevertheless completed 24 of 33 passes, 73%, for 295 yards, and a touchdown, and ran 18 times for an additional 55 yards, and another touchdown.

But it was the Baylor running game that really made the difference, especially late the Washington defense became progressively more gassed as the game wore on. Ganaway rumbled for 200 yards and 5 touchdowns on 21 carries. Ganaway had the last 2 of Baylor's 9 touchdows, bringing the Bears from behind in the fourth quarter, after Price had put the Huskies ahead 56-53 with 9:40 left.

Ganaway also had consecutive touchdowns late in the third quarter that gave Baylor a 53-49 lead heading to the fourth quarter. And he had the longest scoring play of the night, an 89 yard third quarter run. In all Ganaway scored 4 of the last 5 touchdowns of the game, and 5 of the last 7, as the Bears rallied from 18 points down, after Price hit Jermaine Kearse, who was the game's leading receiver, with 198 yards on 5 catches, for an 80 yard scoring strike a minute after halftime.

And Ganaway was only one of three Bears to rush for over 100 yards, as Jared Salubi ran for 101 yards and 2 touchdowns, on 5 carries, and Tevin Reese added another 101 yards, on just 2 carries, with 78 coming on the run that set up Ganaway's score less than a minute before the end of the third quarter.

Baylor rolled up 482 rushing yards, and 777 total yards from scrimmage, good for 33 first downs, and the 9 scores. Coupled with 181 return yards, the Bears piled up 958 total yards.

In case your calculator has burned up, that's 1,397 yards from scrimmage, and 1,818 total yards. The offensive explosion eclipsed the bowl record set by Arizona St. and Rutgers in the 2005 Insight Bowl. 77 plays resulted in either a first down or a touchdown. The 123 points were just 2 points short of the all-time bowl scoring record, Marshall's 64-61 win over East Carolina in the 2001 GMAC Bowl, and that was set in a double overtime contest.

Continue reading this post »